These guidelines explain how to make web content more accessible for people with disabilities. Conformance with these guidelines will help make the web more user friendly for all people.

This site has been built using code compliant with W3C standards for HTML and CSS. The site displays correctly in current browsers and using standards compliant HTML/CSS code means any future browsers will also display it correctly.

Whilst we strive to adhere to the accepted guidelines and standards for accessibility and usability, it is not always possible to do so in all areas of the website.

We are continually seeking out solutions that will bring all areas of the site up to the same level of overall web accessibility. In the meantime should you experience any difficulty in accessing the our website, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Where possible use an up-to-date browser

By using an up-to-date browser (the program you use to access the internet) you will have access to a much richer set of options to aid you as your navigate your way around this site.

The standard browsers we would recommend are below with links to install each of them:

We endeavor to ensure the site looks correct is these different styles but because of the constantly changing nature of the site and its content, this may not always be possible. If you do spot anything which doesn’t look quite right then please let us know

Keyboard Short Cuts / AccessKeys
Different browsers use different keystrokes to activate accesskey shortcuts, as shown below:

Alt + [the accesskey]

Internet Explorer for Windows

Chrome for Windows (not that Shift is required in some circumstances

Safari for Windows

Shift + Alt + [the accesskey]

Firefox for Windows

Ctrl + Option + [the accesskey]

Safari for Mac

Chrome for Mac

Firefox for Mac

AccessKey = 1, takes you back to the home page
AccessKey = 2, takes you this accessibility page
AccessKey = 9, takes you to the Contact Us page

Options in your browser

Most modern browsers all share the most common accessibility tools, here is a list of useful features:

Incremental Search
Incremental search allows you to progressively search a web page for a particular word or phrase on a page. To enable this on your browser, press and hold ALT and then tap F . This will open a box to type your search into. As you type, the matches will be highlighted on the page for you.

Spatial Navigation
Hitting tab will jump you to each of the items you can interact with on any page. Holding the SHIFT key and then pressing tab will take you to the previous item.

Caret Navigation (Internet explorer and firefox only)Instead of using a mouse to select text and move around within a webpage, you can use standard navigation keys on your keyboard : Home, End, Page Up, Page Down & the arrow keys. This feature is named after the caret, or cursor, that appears when you edit a document.To turn this feature on, press the F7 key at the top of your keyboard and choose whether to enable the caret on the tab you are viewing or all your tabs.

Options on your computer

This website has been built with screen readers in mind. Menus, pictures and inputs will have the correct tags and mark up to compliment your chosen screen reader.

We have tested with following tools:

NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access) is a free screen reader for computers running on the Windows operating system.
The latest version can be downloaded for FREE here (on this page you may be asked for a voluntary donation, if you do not wish to donate, click “skip donation this time”)

WAVE is developed and made available as a free community service by WebAIM. Originally launched in 2001, WAVE has been used to evaluate the accessibility of millions of web pages. Read more here

Microsoft Windows Narrator is available in most versions of Mircosoft Windows operating systems and reads text on the screen aloud and describes events like error messages so you can use your PC without a display. To find out more and how to enable it on your version, please click here

JAWS, Job Access With Speech, is the world’s most popular screen reader, developed for computer users whose vision loss prevents them from seeing screen content or navigating with a mouse. JAWS provides speech and Braille output for the most popular computer applications on your PC. This is PAID for software. To find out more and download the software, click here

In summary

We are committed to providing you access to our most valuable resources. If you do spot anything which doesn’t look quite right or have any suggestions for how we might improve our services then please let us know